You knew that man was born to be destroyed, That as an atom perfect, whole, at ease, Drawn to some other atom, is broken, changed And rises o'er the crest of visible things To something else--that man must pass as well Through equal transformation. And You knew The unutterable things of man's life: From the first You saw his wracked Deucalion-soul that looks Backward on life that rises, where he rose Out of the stones. You saw him looking forward Over the purple mists that hide the gulf. Ere the green cell rose, even in the green cell You saw the sequences of thought--You saw That one would say, "All's matter" and another, "All's mind," and man's mind which reflects the image, Could not envision it. That even worship Of what you are would be confused by cries From India or Palestine. That love Which sees itself beginning in the seeds, Which fly and seek each other, maims The soul at the last in loss of child or friend Father or mother. And You knew that sex, Ranging from plants through beasts and up to us Had ties of filth--And out of them would rise Diverse philosophies to tear the world. You knew, when the green cell arose, that even The You which formed it moving on would bring Races and breeds, madmen, tyrants, slaves, The idiot child, the murderer, the insane-- All springing from the action of one law. You knew the enmity that lies between The lives of micro-beings and our own. You knew How man would rise to vision of himself: Immortal only in the race's life. And past the atom and the first glint of life, Saw him with soul enraptured, yet o'ershadowed Amid self-consciousness! _A Voice_